- A referral or approved promotional offer
- Cashback tracked from one portal
- Points or cashback from the payment card
- A retailer loyalty reward
Understand the layers
A referral link identifies who introduced you. A cashback portal tracks which publisher sent the sale. A voucher changes the checkout price. Your card may reward the final transaction, and the retailer may add loyalty points. These layers are different, but the terms can still exclude one another.
Why “last click” matters
Cashback sites commonly rely on cookies and last-referrer tracking. Visiting another voucher, comparison or referral site after activating cashback may overwrite that tracking. TopCashback advises that its cookie needs to be the last referral cookie placed before purchase.
A clean checkout routine
- Read the referral, retailer and cashback terms first.
- Confirm that your voucher is listed or explicitly permitted by the cashback portal.
- Close unrelated retailer tabs and avoid clicking other deal links.
- Enable the cookies needed for tracking and consider pausing blocking extensions.
- Start from the chosen route and complete the purchase in one session.
- Save the confirmation, order number, offer page and terms.
Combinations to treat carefully
Two cashback portals cannot both be the last referrer. An unlisted voucher may invalidate cashback. A referral code may be rejected if a public welcome offer is already applied. Gift cards, subscriptions, taxes and delivery are sometimes excluded from eligible spend.
Never spend to “save”
Stacking works best on a planned purchase at a competitive price. Compare the final cost with other retailers before adding up rewards. Pending cashback is not guaranteed money, so do not rely on it to make an unaffordable purchase affordable.